Your Name

image for Your Name

Short takes

Not recommended under 11, parental guidance 11-13, due to disturbing scenes and themes (In Japanese with English subtitles)

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This topic contains:

  • overall comments and recommendations
  • details of classification and consumer advice lines for Your Name
  • a review of Your Name completed by the Australian Council on Children and the Media (ACCM) on 29 November 2016.

Overall comments and recommendations

Children under 11 Not recommended due to disturbing scenes and themes. In Japanese with English subtitles
Children aged 11 to 13 Parental guidance recommended due to disturbing scenes and themes
Children aged 13 and over OK for this age group

About the movie

This section contains details about the movie, including its classification by the Australian Government Classification Board and the associated consumer advice lines. Other classification advice (OC) is provided where the Australian film classification is not available.

Name of movie: Your Name
Classification: PG
Consumer advice lines: Mild themes and coarse language
Length: 106 minutes

ACCM review

This review of the movie contains the following information:

A synopsis of the story

Your Name is a (subtitled) Japanese animated fantasy film about a mysterious body-swap that occurs between two senior high school students living in separate parts of Japan. Mitsuha (Mone Kamishiraishi) is a young girl living in the small countryside town Itomori, longing for the bustling life of a city such as Tokyo. Taki (Ryunosuke Kamiki) is a high school boy living in Tokyo himself. The two begin to have vivid dreams where they believe they have swapped bodies but they soon realise that they, in fact, actually inhabite each other's bodies.

The pair begin to communicate by leaving each other messages or phone memos, in an attempt to help maintain the appearance of normalcy when the other is in control. Eventually, they both start intervening in the other person's life in small but significant ways. Mitsuha spends her time in Taki's body developing a close relationship with one of Taki's female work colleagues, eventually organising to take her out on a date. In turn, Taki helps Mitsuha become increasingly popular at her school.

At one point, Mitsuha mentions to Taki that a comet is going to be present soon, and that she is excited to see it. Soon Taki realises that he and Mitsuha no longer seem to be swapping bodies and he decides to visit her, travelling around rural areas of Japan in an effort to locate her hometown. What he discovers brings new challenges for Taki.

Themesinfo

Children and adolescents may react adversely at different ages to themes of crime, suicide, drug and alcohol dependence, death, serious illness, family breakdown, death or separation from a parent, animal distress or cruelty to animals, children as victims, natural disasters and racism. Occasionally reviews may also signal themes that some parents may simply wish to know about.

Friendship and romance; fate and destiny; the supernatural; natural disasters; death

Use of violenceinfo

Research shows that children are at risk of learning that violence is an acceptable means of conflict resolution when violence is glamourised, performed by an attractive hero, successful, has few real life consequences, is set in a comic context and / or is mostly perpetrated by male characters with female victims, or by one race against another.

Repeated exposure to violent content can reinforce the message that violence is an acceptable means of conflict resolution. Repeated exposure also increases the risks that children will become desensitised to the use of violence in real life or develop an exaggerated view about the prevalence and likelihood of violence in their own world.

There is some violence within the film, including:

  • Taki (in Mitsuha's body) arranges to have an explosion occur at the Itomori substation so that the village needs to be evacuated before the comet lands. The explosion is large and fire is shown, but no-one is injured.

Material that may scare or disturb children

Under fiveinfo

Children under five are most likely to be frightened by scary visual images, such as monsters, physical transformations.

  • Children in this age group are likely to find the story confusing
  • There are references to a village being destroyed by fragments of a comet that fell to earth - the distant ruins of the village are shown at one point, and it is stated that a third of the townspeople died.
  • Taki is distressed when he realises that Mitsuha dead

Aged five to eightinfo

Children aged five to eight will also be frightened by scary visual images and will also be disturbed by depictions of the death of a parent, a child abandoned or separated from parents, children or animals being hurt or threatened and / or natural disasters.

  • Children in this age group are likely to find the story confusing
  • There are references to a village being destroyed by fragments of a comet that fell to earth - the distant ruins of the village are shown at one point, and it is stated that a third of the townspeople died.
  • Taki is distressed when he realises that Mitsuha dead

Aged eight to thirteeninfo

Children aged eight to thirteen are most likely to be frightened by realistic threats and dangers, violence or threat of violence and / or stories in which children are hurt or threatened.

Younger children in this age group may also find the story rather confusing and some of the scenes disturbing

Thirteen and overinfo

Children over the age of thirteen are most likely to be frightened by realistic physical harm or threats, molestation or sexual assault and / or threats from aliens or the occult.

Nothing of concern

Product placement

Nothing of concern

Sexual references

There are some sexual references within the film, including:

  • When Mitsuha wakes up in Taki's body, she says 'Something's there' and touches between her legs. She is later seen looking very shocked and uncomfortable.
  • Mitsuha (in Taki's body) flirts with a female work colleague, and there are scenes where the colleague is viewed in a sexualised manner (e.g. the camera pans up the length of her body, depicting her as desirable to Mitsuha).

Nudity and sexual activity

There is limited sexual activity and nudity in the film, including:

  • There a a number of scenes where Taki, upon waking up in Mitsuha's female body, gropes and squeezes his breasts. This is usually done in a comedic manner.
  • Taki (in Mitsuha's body) stands in front of a mirror and removes the nightgown, leaving only underwear on – the camera is behind him, and viewers can see Mitsuha's naked back and legs.

Use of substances

There is some substance use, including:

  • Men drink what appears to be an alcoholic beverage whilst around a dinner table. People also drink glasses of red wine at Taki’s restaurant with their dinner.
  • During a dance ritual, two young girls make saké – another character explains that if they chew on rice and spit it out, it ferments and turns into saké. Someone then asks Mitsuha whether she could make money by doing this, and she states that it would breach Liquor Tax Law.

Coarse language

There is some coarse language in this movie, including:

  • dick; pervert; idiot; son of a ….

In a nutshell

Your Name is a romantic film that centres on the flourishing relationship between Taki and Mitsuha, and Taki's quest to save her from an otherwise inevitable fate. Although the two do not meet for most of the film, they touch each other's lives in significant ways. The movie highlights the importance of living in the moment, and not taking the people that you love for granted. It also speaks about fighting for what you believe in, and taking chances and risks where necessary. The movie further explores the nature of fate, and the question of whether some individuals are 'meant to be' with one another.

The film is more suited to teenage viewers. The story may confuse younger children and there are some upsetting scenes and themes. It is also in Japanese with English subtitles.